First time I joined a trip organised by Parlo Tours. I've been a fan eversince and have joined many other subsequent trips by them.
First time I flew Qatar Airways. They were quite unknown then with less frequent connecting flights. The plus point to that was.. we get to tour Doha while waiting for our connecting flight. The airline even provided us with 4* hotel accommodation together with scrumptious buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner :) We don't get to enjoy that now unfortunately. Aaah.. the good old days!
First time I took public transportation alone in a foreign country and got lost in the process. All because I want to buy a Gucci purse at Duomo shopping area ;p Thank God for the beautiful Italian lady who can speak a smithereen of English. She went around to find a map and then showed me how to get back to my hotel using the metro. Now, whenever I got lost.. I will always remember this incident and feel very confident that there are many good people that will show me the right way :)
Now why did I go to Italy in summer? It was so hot. Most especially when we were in Doha. Because there was a promotion of course! And also I was in a "travel mood".. I just want to go somewhere. Regardless of what season.
The best part about going in summer was the day light hours. If I'm not mistaken, it turned dark only at 9 pm. So we got to enjoy the sights longer. Other plus points were good weather (no rain) and good light. So there was no need to use flash to take photos or bring raincoats. We brought umbrella though... Typical Asians relationship with the sun ;p
This trip costs RM4.1k per person (full-board). The tour was from 11-20 July 2003. It was quite long due to the 2 days transit in Doha. The actual days spent in Italy was only 7 days. We covered the following cities: Rome, Pompeii, Sorrento, Florence, Venice, Pisa, Verona, Lake Lugano, Lake Como and Milan. We entered Italy via Rome and departed from Milan.
I've decided not to put up any Doha photos in this article's facebook album. I will cover it in other article with pictures taken in 2008. Doha in 2003 was just like a cowboy town. Doha in 2008 was much more vibrant. I'm just sharing these two photos of Doha. Ripening dates and an Arabian horse. Such a sweet looking horse :)
If you're interested, I've posted 219 photos of my trip to Italy in my M Kha Sha facebook account.
You can access them at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/mkhasha.n.travels/. Go to the photo albums.
Njoy!!
